Day 1: Townsend light's Northerns fire

IN CENTURION

Young David Townsend may have just discarded his L plates as a budding fast bowler but a second six wicket haul in five days has kept Northerns just in touch of reaching the A Section final next weekend.

While Western Province struggled to collect three bowling points against Border at Newlands yesterday and Eastern Province also put in a charge with four batting points, the 21-year-old red-headed ``Townie'' moved up the SuperSport Series list of wicket-takers with another impressive bowling display.

This one was against Free State who crumbled after tea to a disappointing first innings total of 212, which earned them two batting points. It was Townsend, however, with an unerring ability to swing the ball across the body as well as put it in the right area at the right time which did much to help Northerns collect four valuable bowling points.

On the first day of the final round of crucial A Section games around the country, with the race for a place in the final very much open to how the first innings bonus points hunt shapes up today, Northerns were 45 for two at the close needing a further 305 runs in 76 overs to reach the 350 Peter Kirsten, the Titans manager/coach, had set his charges in a bid to stay in with an outside chance of matching Province and the other rivals Eastern Province.

While Northerns and Eastern Province move to 79 log points, Province have moved to 92 three short of their target. For this they need to score 250 in their first innings.

Yet it was an outstanding catch at deep point by Dirkie de Vos to get rid of the young Free State run-making magician, Botea Dippenaar, which turned the visitors innings around.

At the time they had reached 133 for three with Townsend, bowling from the Hennops River end when the attacking Dippenaar fiercely cut the Northerns bowler. The ever-alert De Vos snapped up the catch which had ended a quality innings from the multi-talented strokeplayer.

He began the innings, looking to beat Allan Lamb's all-time Free State record of 878 runs in a first-class season but when he had reached 57 he made the one error of the innings and to finish nine runs short of the target.

Dippenaar and Louis Wilkinson had resurrected the innings after an early collapse saw them tumble to 72 for three in the 24th over of the innings. The pair had batted sensibly, making the most of any wayward bowling on good batting surface. It was Dippenaar's fourth half century of the summer, which along with his four centuries has seen him score an impressive 869 runs at an average of 74 an innings.

There were several fluent drives and a number of square cuts, but generally he worked towards the half-century, at times being tied down by some accurate spin from the Northerns skipper Mark Davis.

While Dippenaar's wicket was the prize and Townsend's second of his six, Davis stepped in after tea and with the cunning ploy of bowling around the wicket to Wilkinson immediately after tea, removed the second strut of the innings. Wilkinson gave a simple catch to Martin van Jaarsveld.

It was when Davis removed Free State batsmen Jonathan Beukes and Herman Bakkes, smartly stumped by Grant Morgan which opened up the lower Free State order to the twin skills of Townsend's swing and Davis' spin; although Greg Smith's performance was as deserving as Quentin Ferreira's who picked up a wicket for his efforts.

On a surface where there are plenty of runs, however , Northerns need to hurry along their runs rate if the hope to keep in touch with what is happening at Newlands and Port Elizabeth although Townsend has already put in a claim for man of the match award.

Day 2 Report

IN CENTURION

In more recent summers Northerns batsmen have had the habit of shooting off one foot and hobbling around on the other, which is why the five batting points which Peter Kirsten had hoped would emerge from the Titans first innings failed to materialise.

So, apart from blowing their hopes of playing in the final of the SuperSport Series out of the proverbial choppy seas of uncertainty, Northerns were fortunate to salvage two batting points and a first innings total of 210 - two short of that managed by Free State.

Had it not been for your typical lower-order trench warfare action, with privates Dirkie de Vos and Quentin Still digging in, Northerns might not have managed even their two batting points, especially after the top and middle-order failed to build on third-wicket partnership which had promised so much but delivered little.

When light rain and bad light curtailed the final session to 26 overs, Free State had advanced their total to 62 for an overall lead of 64.

It was just the sort of day which Botea Dippenaar should remember. While his elder batting peers Kepler Wessels and Hansie Cronje have gone on to lead South Africa neither managed to score 1 000 runs. He surpassed Allan Lamb's record of 878 runs in a season when he tapped Greg Smith for a couple and later reached the 1 000th runs with a single.

Not at all bad for a 21-year-old who took a century of Northerns last season and could so again and set up a target chase which could be as interesting as it might be hard to achieve and the fifth outright win of the season.

When the day started Gerald Dros and Mark Davis looked comfortable enough and solid with Dros executing a perfect cover-drive off Matthew Hoggard for four. Just the sort of start to set off in chase of a handsome first innings lead and the five bonus points.

Hazy dreams on a late summer morning which were rudely shaken when Mark Davis was run out in the sort of slap stick ``yes'', ``no'', ``wait'' and ``oops ... jammer'' mid-pitches pantomimes which herald the start of a nightmare collapse. From 80 for three the innings tumbled to 103 for seven and about the only moment of reality came in the knowledge that amid this carnage Mike Rindel was ``burgled'' of his wicket. Louis Wilkinson ``claimed'' the catch off his pad (as shown by the TV replay) from Kosie Venter's bowling.

Perhaps ``reality'' is the wrong term as Northerns, and no doubt Rindel, would have enjoyed a far longer bat than six minutes where he face four balls and managed a single.

After that it was trench warfare tactics from the De Vos/Still partnership as they worked their way through 33 overs in scoring 93 runs, with De Vos picking off a solid 61 with some tidy boundaries while Still, nursing an injured right hand batted for just over two and a half hours to aid De Vos in his innings. That Northerns secured the batting points was due to the eighth-wicket pairing and again showed the uncertainties of the first-class game.

Not that Free State were able to take full control in their second innings. Andrew Gait, who played for SA u/19 last year, was fortunate to escape being dropped twice and edging the ball short of the slips.

Quentin Ferreira should have had him snapped up in the third over of the innings and Greg Smith watched Grant Morgan put him down.

It certainly was not a day Northerns will look back on with too much enjoyment save for De Vos and Still; they showed what could have been achieved had the others also backed themselves.

Day 4: Ferreira unlikely batting hero

IN CENTURION

Not for the first time this season has all-rounder Quentin Ferreira become the unlikely batting hero Northerns needed to aid their cause and yesterday it was Free State's turn to be pounded into submission.

The 26-year-old whom Gauteng allowed to carelessly slip through their normally sticky fingers helped Northerns hoist a record fifth successive SuperSport Series victory while most people were thinking about sitting down to their Sunday roast or braai.

For the second time this season Ferreira managed to post a first-class career best. Last time it was in Kimberley against Griqualand West. At Centurion yesterday he stretched it to 63 not out as with Dirkie de Vos the pair added 117 in an unbroken sixth wicket partnership to steer Northerns home by five wickets.

Just enough points from the outright victory to see Northerns land up in third place on the log.

It was a well -placed boundary by Ferreira backward of square at 12.50 pm and off Yorkshireman Matthew Hoggard which did the trick as Northerns, looking for 226 for victory, won with almost two sessions to spare. It was a good patch up job with Dirkie de Vos as the pair rescued the innings from a shaky middle-order hiccup which saw the side slide, with the aid of a dodgy lbw decision against Martin van Jaarsveld, from an overnight 92 for two to 109 for five in a matter of five overs give a ball or two.

Just the sort of nice collapse which gets the nerves tingling in the dressing and has the captain wondering what went wrong and why. After all, scoring the 134 needed to win, on a fairly docile surface, should not have been too difficult. But Northerns have the habit on ``freezing'' in the middle these days and when Mike Rindel departed first ball and Gerald Dros eight runs later did not quite get the height he was looking for, reflection of Van Jaarsveld's lbw decision added pressure on those who were still to come.

But Ferreira arrived, took the innings by the scruff of the neck and with De Vos tuck neatly in his slipstream, gave Northerns the sort of batting performance which Deon Jordaan had provided the previous eyeing. It was positive, it was full of flamboyance and those who inhabit the terraces for limited-overs games.

If De Vos played the perfect foil to the hard-hitting Ferreira his contribution was equally important with 44 not out and 100 runs for the match.

Free State sniffed their chances of success but from the moment the wicketkeeper Morne van Wyk put down Ferreira when he had 12 and the score was 137 for five the bell started tolling Free State's death knell.

Ferreira went to his 50 with a six: a handsome of-drive of Kosie Venter who did what he could but lacked the panache to spin a side to victory. It was Ferreira's second six, and the way he tapped the ball through the gaps showed there is a lot of good batting to come from the young man.

Man of the match award went to David Townsend for his 10 wicket haul for 110 runs, the first of his career and a place in the South African President's XI later this week against England A at Newlands.